I was sulking in my room, the hurt never leaving me. I wanted to go console Ali but I knew that it wasn't a rational decision.

A ray of hope lit up inside me when I heard the doorbell ring. If it was Muffin on the door, I'd tell her about my Friday's too. About why I'd been missing out on the movie nights.

But my ray of hope disappeared when I heard,"Oh Aary!!"

I slumped back on my bed, a frown pasted upon my face.

What the hell was she doing here?

I put my head in my hands as I heard the clicks of her heels coming closer.

"Oh Baby, I missed you! Where were you?" She stood in front of me.

I looked up to see Shelly wearing a pout, trying to be adorable.

I rolled my eyes.

"I wasn't feeling well," I answered telling her half of the truth.

"I know what will make you feel better," she said, a sparkle lighting up her eyes.

Nothing can make me feel better right now.

"Guess what? Ryan, you remember him, right? The one who was after me for so long to throw a party, well, he's holding one now. Today at 7:00. What do you say?"

"Shelly I-," I was cut off when my phone started playing 'Wanted' by Hunter Hayes.

My eyes widened as I searched for my phone frantically. That ringtone was only for one person.

After finally finding it, I hastily swiped the answer button and answered.

"A-Ali? Oh my god. I'm so so sorry. I didn't know how this all happened-," before I could explain myself, Shelly wrapped her arms around me and started her own whining.

I muttered a few cuss words before returning to the call.

"Ali, you there?"

I heard her saying something before Shelly snatched my phone and pressed the 'hold' button.

Anger filled me along with frustration.

"What the hell are you doing?" I yelled as I reached for my phone. She moved aside and knocked the glass of juice all over me.

Her eyes widened as she looked at my drenched shirt. I took the opportunity and snatched my phone back.

I removed the hold and tried to speak into the phone when Shelly again started snatching the phone.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I shouted, really angry.

If had enough. What the hell was she trying to do anyway?

"Baby, let's just forget about it and enjoy ourselves at Ryan's party. Remember the last two Friday's? That was so much fun and this will be even better," she cooed, trying to come to me, but I stepped back.

Clenching my jaw, I turned my attention to the phone. I paled as I realised that I had removed it from hold.

That meant Ali heard the whole thing about the last two Friday's.

I tried calling out to her through the phone but I got no answer.

Shit!

I ended the call and tried several times. Each time praying that she'd pick up. But it was useless. She didn't pick up.

Maybe, just maybe the signal was bad and it got cut off by mistake.

I knew it was false hope, but that's what kept me standing.

"I need to go," I whispered and made a run for the door before Shelly could figure out what I was up to.

I had to explain it to Ali. She would understand it once I told her about my parents. I knew she would.

With that thought in mind, I grabbed my keys and without any sort of a goodbye, I jumped into my car and drove to her house.

My heart thumped inside my chest, almost as if it was going to come out. I still don't understand why any other person can't make me feel the way she does.

Trust me, I've tried too many times to get rid of the flutters that consume my stomach when I'm near her.

Hell, I thought that getting a girlfriend would throw my mind off these stupid feelings. But no.

Fate up there has a wicked way of forming things.

And it's not that she thinks of me as her brother or anything. But given that, she also hasn't ever thought of anyone except Logan Lerman or Dylan O'Brien in that way. And that makes me want to just go die in a ditch somewhere.

It's just crazy. I know that even my mother is silently shipping us both. Hell, she loves Ali more than me and that seriously makes me doubt her loyalty towards me. In fact, the things Ali could make me do, put my masculinity to shame.

And that was a serious issue.

As soon as Ali's house came in view, I pushed these thoughts aside and raced up to her room.

I threw her door open and paused for a breath as I rested my hands on my knees.

"Why didn't you pick up your phone?" I asked. Quite lame, I know. But I was silently praying that she hadn't heard Shelly.

She had her back towards me. So when she turned, the red splotches on her face along with the dried tears made my eyes widen.

"Where were you for the last two Friday's?"

Realisation dawned upon me as my prayers went unanswered. She had heard Shelly. She was crying because of me.

"Ali, I-," I began but she cut me off.

"Don't. Just go. Please. Leave me alone," she spoke, her voice getting devoid of any emotion by the word.

"Muffin, please list-," she cut me off.

"GO AWAY," she shouted and I flinched.

Hurt flashed across my face as she refused to let me explain.

Was this how it was going to end? Was she not going to let me explain? Not even bother to hear me out?

It hurt to know that she was ditching me just like that. Without any explanation.

I backed away, wishing she'd call me back. But it pained me when I didn't even hear a word.

Deflated and disheartened, I left her house. Wounded was something that could describe what I felt. It was worse than being trampled on by a bulldozer. Attests that would only give you physical pain.

*****

It had been two days since I'd last seen Ali and two days since I'd been sulking, consumed by hurt.

I was pissed, frustrated, hurt, confused, aggravated, agitated and so much more. My emotions were so jumbled, that it was hard for me to even recognise what in hell I was feeling.

I felt like pulling my hair sometimes while the rest of the times I wanted to punch a wall.

I had decided not to go to school to witness the competition, no matter how much Shelly asked me to do that. I was done behaving like some sick pet dog, listening to her demands.

I sulked around when I heard knocks on the door.

A moment later, mom poked her head inside. "You okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I laughed, but it came out bitter.

"I think you should go to school," she suggested.

I snorted. "No thanks."

She let out a huge sigh before muttering something incoherent. After shaking her head a bit, she looked up and met my gaze.

"AARON JAMES PELT! If you don't get your butt out of that bed in ten seconds, I will personally come and kick your ass," she yelled and I immediately sat up with wide eyes.

But I didn't get off the bed. Instead, I smirked. "I'd like to see you try. Mom, you're forgetting that I'm twice your size."

Realisation dawned upon her but she masked it and smirked back. "Okay then. I'll simply send your baby confession to Alyssa."

That made me bolt right up. "You wouldn't."

She smirked even more. "When was it, when you were ten? I remember you shouting-"

"MOM," I yelled, getting red in the face. I very well knew what I'd said. I just wish that mom hadn't recorded it.

"So...? Are you getting up or-?"

"NO, no. I'm up. See? I'll go. Just promise me that you won't even think of showing it to Muffin. Please!" I nearly begged.

She just chuckled.

Once she shut the door, I realised what she got me into. I groaned, but started to get ready for the dreaded destination.

****

After roaming about for what seemed hours in the corridors of the school, I'd been left with no choice but to go where the singing was being held.

For the briefest moment, I imagined what it would be like if Muffin was performing. Just thinking about it, brought an empty ache inside my body, which I wanted to erase so badly.

I entered the auditorium and his among the shadows so that no one recognised me.

Participants kept on coming and singing their part. It wasn't as if they weren't good, but none of them seemed to appeal me.

Then came Shelly. It was quite surprising to see her sing well. I'd never imagined that a high pitched voice of hers changed when she sang. Her voice aside, her dance was making me shield my eyes.

Come on. She was performing in a school.

Some of her steps seemed too intense and just not appropriate for people to see. I just wanted to turn around a bolt from there.

And I would've done that if I'd not frozen while turning when the anchor called up Ali's name.

My heart pounded in my chest so much so that I could feel the vibrations.

Taking a deep breath, I started for the door. What was I even thinking?

She wouldn't have come because of what happened just two days ago. Hell, even I wouldn't have shown my face after such humiliation.

Ignoring the constricted feeling in my body, I took a few steps towards the exit when the shouts from the audience made me stop.

"Hey isn't that the girl from the posters?" One of them shouted.

I whirled around to glance up at the stage. And sure, there stood my Muffin, looking cute as ever, fidgeting a bit.

My eyes were as wide as saucers, as I tried to grasp in what was happening right in front of me.

I was really tempted to pinch myself or rub my eyes, just in case this was an illusion.

How did she agree to perform? Who convinced her?

Before I could recover from the shock of Ali on stage, a hand on my shoulder caught my attention.

I turned to see a brown-haired boy, almost my height standing there with a hint of a smile.

Who was he?

I'd never seen him before.

"Hi. You're Aaron, right?" He spoke in a British accent.

I raised my eyebrow, but slowly nodded, not sure where this was going.

"I'm glad you came, mate. It was really hard to convince Ali to go up to perform."

My insides deflated as an unfamiliar feeling of irritation mixed with something else coursed through me.

Why did he call her Ali? Was he the reason why Muffin went up on stage? Who even was he?

I gritted my teeth together and clenched my fists, to prevent myself from saying anything else.

I heard insults being thrown at my best friends and anger coursed through me with double force.

I wanted to pummel the person who even dared to throw a bad word at her.

But before I could take a step towards those people, I heard Ali clear her throat. This made everyone go silent.

Even I looked up at her. Before she could say anything into the mic, the tech guy, Lucas told her something and she nodded.

She hesitantly introduced herself and the judges asked what her theme was.

I waited for her reply. She seemed pretty nervous about the theme which sky-rocketed my curiosity.

"It's friendship. It's for my best friend to be exact. It's dedicated to him," she replied.

I was stunned. I stood there with my jaw slowly unhinging. My eyes were ready to pop out of there sockets. And had it been a cartoon, I would've looked quite funny.

All I could hear were the words 'It's for my best friend to be exact. It's dedicated to him'

She was doing it for me?

I didn't understand. Not even one bit. I thought she was upset because of me.

But I stood there, probably gaping at what she said. I didn't even hear what the judges said next. I just heard Alyssa replying.

"Well, I-I just want to apologise to the best friend I've ever had and I could ever have. You've been here through so much with me and I screwed up, just like that. I let the seventeen years of friendship go down the drain because of just one misunderstanding. S-So I hope you can forgive me after this....Aaron," she spoke into the mic.

After this, commotion erupted. But that wasn't what I was focussed on.

If it was possible to be even more shocked, I was ready to say that I had just crossed every limit of being shocked. Stunned, stupefied, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, bewildered, surprised and I could go on and on.

She had just revealed our friendship to the whole school.

That is when I knew that she was really apologising for hurting me. And I couldn't be any more happy. Not for her apologising. But because of the knowledge that she cared. She cared enough to let go of the things that scared her the most.

She began singing. Her voice had put most of the audience in a trance. I noticed that the lyrics of the song were literally conveying our friendship and her message.

Her face displayed her calmness and she got lost in her melody, capturing everyone in a sweet trance.

Every word of the song, made my heart beat faster and an ear-splitting grin stretched across my face as I took baby steps towards her.

She ended her song, leaving everyone around her in awe. She seemed surprised by their reaction. But before she could start her second song, Shelly stepped onto the stage, with a deadly expression and began yelling at her.

The happiness was soon replaced by anger as I increased my pace toward the stage.

The scared expression on Muffin's face made me clench my fists.

"Do you really think a someone like Aaron would even look at you? You're such an attention seeking whore," she yelled.

I walked up near the stage, where I would be visible to both Shelly and Ali.

"What a bi-Oh look Aaron. Now what're you going to do?" Shelly sneered as she sashayed her way towards me.

Ali's head snapped towards the audience, searching for me. Once her gaze found me, she frantically brought the mic to her lips. But before she could say anything, Shelly stood beside me and cooed-

"Tell her baby, tell her how much of a liar she is," she said, running her hand up and down my chest, trying to be seductive. It was surprising that I didn't even have it in me to feel repulsed by it because my sole attention was on Muffin.

I looked at Ali. She wore a panicked expression as she spoke-

"A-Aaron, I'm really sorry. I d-didn't know anything and I just assumed," she spoke with a shaky voice.

I knew what she meant.

She knew about the Fridays. I stood there blank-faced as I looked at her.

She stood there on the verge of tears and it hurt me to see her like that. She was internally panicking and that is when I guessed that my dear little Muffin was cooking up some idiotic scenarios in her pretty little head.

So, without waiting any further, I pushed Shelly's arms off of me.

God that felt good.

And then opened my arms for my best friend. Everyone seemed shocked by my actions. I didn't care about them. They could say whatever they wanted but nothing was going to stop me from getting back to my best friend.

Muffin seemed taken aback at first, but soon recovered and ran off the stage and into my arms.

The feeling of warmth and happiness spread in me as I familiarised myself with her.

I lifted her up and twirled her around.

I couldn't be happier that we had found our ways back to each other. At least I knew that we still had each other's backs, even when we screwed up.

"I'm sorry," she apologised, looking adorable with rosy cheeks and a cute half-smile.

"I think you made up for it pretty well," I grinned at her.

Her face broke into a full fledged grin that did something not-so-good to my insides.

As I looked at my best friend, I realised something.

I really needed to find a way to calm my raging hormones. Or else, my calm act would just go down the drain and that would be even more disastrous.

******************

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